adminManchester United manager on July 1.
Both clubs hail from England’s northwest, both were founded in 1878, and both number among England’s oldest and most well-supported sides, but it is there that the similarities tail off.
At Everton, Moyes had to show the skill of an alchemist to squeeze every last ounce out of the club’s modest budget, occasionally dredging the lower leagues for players that his club’s wealthier rivals had overlooked.
His eye for a bargain has helped him lead Everton to six consecutive top-eight finishes, but he has no experience of operating at the very top end of the transfer market and at United, he will have the resources of one of the world’s richest clubs at his fingertips.
Ferguson personally recommended Moyes to the United board, no doubt seeing in his fellow Glaswegian glimpses of the passion and iron will that fuelled his own rise to the top, but he will also be keenly aware of the 50-year-old’s near total lack of Champions League experience. In his 11 years at Everton, Moyes presided over just two games in Europe’s elite competition — a two-legged defeat by Villarreal in the qualifying rounds of the 2005-06 tournament.
He led Everton into battle in the Europa League four times, reaching the last 16 in 2008, but he has never pitted his wits against teams like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and AC Milan, against whom United are duty-bound to measure themselves.
The 20-time English champions made a statement by awarding Moyes a six-year contract, with club director Bobby Charlton trumpeting the arrival of “a man who will build teams for the future, as well as now”. By granting such a relatively untested manager such a long contract, United appear to be hoping that the systems put in place by Ferguson will allow the new man to slip into the driving seat without sending the juggernaut off the road — or slowing it down unduly.
Nevertheless, it is unlikely that Moyes will be granted four years to find his feet, as Ferguson was when he succeeded Ron Atkinson in November 1986.
Such are the heights to which Ferguson has elevated the club that they cannot afford the backwards steps that a newcomer might be granted elsewhere. United have not finished outside the top three since 1991. They have not failed to qualify for the Champions League since 1995. Since 1990, they have finished a season without at least one piece of major silverware on only three occasions. — AFP.
Online Reporter